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Spotify expands its Web API so developers can now let you build playlists in their own apps

Big news for developers today: Spotify has announced a significant expansion to its Web API, while also revealing that it has been hard at work integrating with The Echo Nest following its acquisition of the music data platform back in March.

With the latest version of the API, not only will third-party developers be able to include album art and music previews, but they’ll also be able to let their users create bone fide Spotify playlists directly within their own Web apps.

Retrieve extensive metadata, including track, album and artist details, as well as cover art and 30-second track previews.

Access user profile information (permission-based), including playlists, display name, image, country, email, external URL, and subscriber status. New playlists can now be built and accessed later in any Spotify app.

Spotify has allowed developers to build upon its platform and arsenal of music since it opened its API way back in 2009, and has been iterating ever since. With the latest update, Spotify is essentially letting developers create pretty feature-rich, music-based Web apps.

The Echo Nest’s main offering is based on its database of tens of millions of songs and artists, which is automatically derived using Web crawling, data mining and digital signal processing. The platform enables developers and media companies to integrate music data across their own products, which is why Spotify was keen to cough up what was rumored to be in the region of $100 million to take it under its wings.

Spotify said in its announcement that it’s been “working hard” to bring the two APIs together. The upshot of this tight integration means that developers can build things like this, this or this.